Wildflower bouquet

When I first started planning the wedding, I wanted so many things.  I was so silly.  One of those things I wanted was a bouquet made of wildflowers.  Turns out, many of the reasons I wanted wildflowers were also the reasons why it wouldn't work.  For example:  I wanted my bouquet to look simple and carefree (think woodland wedding).  I wanted my bouquet to be cheap.  I also wanted it to be something that would be easy to find and put together, as well as something that would "match" anything.  Turns out wildflowers are actually kind of hard to come by (unless you want to grow a ton yourself and have the good fortune of having them all bloom exactly on time).  This also means they're spendy to put together...not to mention the fact that most wildflowers aren't sturdy (We're talking wilting within a couple hours in the heat).  NOT ideal.  Neither are peonies in September (darn!).

Needless to say, I was unable to get wildflowers...but here are some beautiful wildflower bouquets to drool over anyways.

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DIY wedding flower bootcamp

So, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a Groupon for a DIY wedding flower bootcamp at the Floral Design Institute here in Portland.  The Groupon was $95, but since I had a $10 Groupon credit (I dont know when/who I got that from), it was only $85 for me.  Now, I know this is a lot of money, but since I've been stressing out over the whole flower situation and doing them myself, I decided if anything, the amount of time I can save just by getting some practice should be worth the money.  Besides...it was a class normally priced at $195, which includes all the materials--FLOWERS!--and it was only one day.  Fun!

Anyways, I learned a lot, and am starting to think I may tackle fresh flower bouquets for the guys and corsages for the moms and other special ladies:)  Here are pics of some of the things I made.

Bouquet using a nosgay.  Not a huge fan of these, but it did look nice.  I still prefer hand tied bouquets.

Corsage.  Not a big fan of the gluing method we used to create these, but I know how to wire and wrap them now:)

Boutonniere

Flower girl head gear as modeled by Maddie. 

Also made a hand-tied bouquet, not pictured here. 

I had a great time at this class, and it has given me more confidence to do my own DIY flowers.  Are you planning on doing your own flowers for your wedding too?